Moongdaal sambar

Moongdal is easy to digest and my first son likes it better than toor dal. Lemon rasam is his favorite. I tried this sambar once and he kept asking for more. It tasted great with idlis and tastes equally good with rice too. Since it is quite easy it has become a regular at our place now.

Ingredients :
Moongdaal - 1 cup
Onion - 1 medium
Tomatos - 2 medium
Salt
Green chillies - 4
Sambar powder - 1/2 spoon
Mustard seeds, hing and curry leaves for seasoning
Cilantro for garnishing
Tamarind paste - 1/2 spoon (optional)

Method :

Pressure cook moongdaal with chopped tomatoes.Heat little oil in pan, add mustard seed, hing and curry leaves. Once the mustard seeds pop add green chillies and saute for a min.Add onions and saute till they are translucent. Add the cooked daal, sambar powder and salt. Add tamarind paste if you want to have it with rice. Let it boil till the raw smell of sambar powder disappears.

Tastes good with Idli, Dosa and Pongal

Stuffed Brinjal (Eggplant) Sambar and Curry Powder

I went on another short break. We took my inlaws on a short trip to few places last week. The trip was good as it was not that hot. Since my inlaws are here, i have taken a short break from experimenting new recipes in the kitchen. I pretty much stick to authentic recipes as I don't want to scare them or torture them. I think i have done that enough when i was newly married :-) I remember one time, me and my sil decided to prepare Chapattis. My sil was not married at that time and was as clueless as me in the kitchen. When we were in the Kitchen, i dropped a plate accidentally on the floor and on hearing that noise, my bil asked us if it was one of the chappatis that we prepared. We both got so mad at him, but our chappathis were quite bad like Pappads so we couldn't argue! :-)

Now moving on to the recipes...

South Indian Curry Powder - A versatile powder :

This is another big help in the kitchen for me. I grind and keep this powder in stock and it helps in preparing easier versions of some authentic recipes like Rasavangi and Bisibela. Here are some of the recipes that i use this in :

• This is used as curry powder for the following vegetables - Potato, Seppankizhangu (Colocasia), Yam ( Suran/Senaikizhanghu), Eggplant and Okra.
• This is used to make stuffed eggplant and stuffed okra.
• This can be used to make quick and easy Bisibela
• This is used to make stuffed eggplant sambar.
• This can be used to make quick and easy rasavangi.
• This can be added to Sundal. You gotto to try this to believe how yummy it is! Kids will ask for more :)

Now to the recipe :

Ingredients :

Channadaal - 1 cup

Urad daal - 1 cup

Coriander seeds (Dhaniya) - 1 cup

Red chillies - 1 cup

Rice - a handful

Hing - 1 or 2 pinches

Method :
Saute everything in little oil till the daals are golden brown. Let it cool. Dry grind and store in air tight container.

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Stuffed eggplant Sambar :
I learnt this from my mil. This is tangy like vethakuzhambu. I like this so much that i can inhale it :-) My husband doesn't like eggplants that much..so i get more ;-) Teehee! :)

Ingredients :
Tamarind - Lemon size
Multipurpose Powder - 5, 6 spoons
Small eggplants - 8
Salt to taste
Mustard seeds, curryleaves and hing for seasoning



Method :
Add required salt to the multipurpose powder and mix well.
Slit the eggplants crosswire. Do not cut it completely. Stuff it with multipurpose powder
Apply couple of drops of oil on each eggplant and microwave for 4 minutes or till they are tender.
Now, take little oil in a non stick pan and add these cooked eggplants. Add 2 more spoons of multipurpose powder, salt, tamerind water and let it cook till it starts to thicken. Cook till it reaches the soupy consistency. Add some more salt if required.


It thickens fast since we have added rice in the multipurpose powder.
Tastes good with Rice.

Sending this to Sanghi's FIL-Brinjal Event

Beetroot Curry and Rasam

Hello all, I am back after a short break and hope to be regular in updating my blog and visiting yours too :-)

When i was little, i was so fascinated by beetroot :-) I never cared about how it tasted. I just loved it because it turned my food pink :) This trick does not work with my boys, obviously. I told my first kiddo that i have made a magic vegetable that will turn all his food into pink. I thought the word 'magic' would do the trick. Nope. He said, 'Pink is for girls, so you can have it all' :-) Then, i pulled the 'it will help you grow big and strong' card and it worked. He said he liked it but not loved it. As long as he takes, i dont care whether he loves or likes :-) My toddler did not like to eat it with rice, but liked it with pasta! Whatever works! :)

Here's the recipe for this simple, yummy curry.

Beetroot Curry :
Beets - 4
Green chillies - 4 or 5 finely chopped
Salt to taste
Curry leaves
Minced cilantro - 2,3 spoons
Mustard seeds, urad daal and hing for seasoning



Method :
Wash, peel and boil the beets for 10 -15 minutes till they become tender.
Chop them into small cubes. The tender beets are easy to chop.
In a pan, heat 1 spoon oil. Pop mustard seeds, add urad daal and hing and fry till the daal is golden brown. Add the chopped, steamed beets and salt and mix well. Cook for few minutes. Garnish with cilantro. You can also add 2,3 spoons of grated coconut.

Beetroot Rasam :
I saw the idea of using the water that was used to steam beets in sambar in some blog. Can't remember where. I decided to make rasam with it. It was pink and had a slight sweet taste to it. Sweet, tangy and spicy. I loved the burst of flavours and ofcourse the colour :-)

I just made it like regular tomato rasam with home made rasam powder. I used the beets water instead of plain water. Here's a pic of the rasam :

Incase you are wondering what the pumpkin is doing in the first pic - i had this crazy idea for Click : Spring/autumn to combine something that would represent both seasons and took this pic, but i sent another pic for that event.

Morkuzhambu and two awards

I love all yogurt based recipes. Morkozhambu tops the list. I learnt this from my mom and since this is easy, i make it atleast once a week, during the weekday. It is everyone's favorite at my house, so no dinner-time battle with this :)

Ingredients :

Buttermilk - 3 cups (should not be very watery)

Green chillies - 8

Grated coconut - 3 spoons

Channa daal - 2 spoons

Rice - 2 spoons

Cumin seeds - 2 spoons

Salt to taste

Mustard seeds, jeera and curry leaves for seasoning.

Few pieces of Okra/Ashgourd/cooked colacassia - Optional

Method :
Wash and soak channa daal and rice in water for an hour. Grind this with cumin seeds, green chillies and coconut. Add this paste to the beaten yogurt / buttermilk. Add turmeric powder, salt and hing.Cook in medium heat for about 5 minutes or till it thickens. Keep stirring in between. If you over heat it will become very watery.
Season with mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves. You can add Ashgourd or Colocassia or Okra to it and it tastes very good. If you are adding these vegetables, cook these before hand with little salt and then add the buttermilk mixture to it and cook.
Tip : To get a rich, creamy morkozhambu, add 1 cup of sour cream to the butter milk and blend it well before cooking. It tastes awesome, but is fatty :-O Tastes good with Rice and colocassia . I love it with Adai too.

On priya's prompting, i am sending this to RCI Chettinad. Along with this i am also sending Mushroom Chettinad

My friends Malar,Akal and Varsha have given me

I am passing this on to my new blogger friends : Sathya, RamyaBala, Anu, Veena, Raji,
Chitra, Ann, Cham, Deesha, Soumya, Preety, KV and Tina .

Varsha, Mahimaa and Vidhya have given me the

I pass this on to all my blogger friends.

Arachu Vitta Sambar (with pooshanikkai / Ashgourd)

I learnt this from my mom. This is everyone's favorite in our family, especially when it is made with ashgourd. Most of my friends love it too and whenever they came to my place, they would ask my mom to prepare this. Mine comes out pretty good, but i still like my mom's better :-)


Ingredients :
Chickpeas - 1 cup (cooked)
Toordaal + channa daal - 1 cup
Ashgourd - 1 cub cubed (Optional)
Salt to taste
Tamarind extract ( from lemon sized tamarind)
Turmeric - a pinch
Mustard seeds, hing and curry leaves for seasoning
Cilantro for garnishing
To grind :
Red chillies - 6
Channadaal - 3 spoons
Urad daal - 1.5 spoons
Dhaniya (Coriander) - 2 spoons
Grated coconut - 4 spoons

Method :
In a pan, heat little oil and fry channa daal, urad daal, red chillies and dhaniya till the daals are golden brown. Add little water to it and grind this along with grated coconut. Keep aside.
Wash and pressure cook channa daal + toordaal.
Steam the ashgourd in microwave for 3,4 minutes.
In a pan, heat some oil and pop mustard seeds. add hing and curry leaves and saute for a minute.
Add the ashgourd, tamarind extract, cooked channa, cooked daal and the ground paste to it. Add required water and add a pinch of turmeric and salt to taste. Let it boil till the raw smell goes and it becomes thick.

Tastes good with Rice. I love it so much that i can have it like soup without the rice :)

I am sending this also to Sunshinemom's FIC: Yellow, Srivalli's MLLA, an event started by Susan and JFI Chickpea hosted by MS.

My best friend Bobby loves this and i think of her everytime i make this. So, this one's for her and i'm sending this to Alka's Just for you, also.

My mom's Jeeraga Rasam (Cumin seeds Rasam)

This is my all time favorite. I love all types of rasams that my mom prepares and this tops the list. For years, i didn't even bother to take this recipe from my mom thinking it will be very difficult or time-consuming. That's how knowledgeable and patient i was when it came to cooking! ;-) Over time, i kinda forgot about this rasam. My friend B loves my mom's cooking too and she asked me to get this recipe when my mom was here last time. I was quite surprised on how easy it was, when i took this recipe.

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients :

Toordaal - 1/2 cup (yes, i measured it this time! :-))

Cumin seeds - 2 spoons

Red chillies - 4 (Adj. a/c to your spice level!)

Tamarind - Lemon sized

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Salt to taste

Mustard seeds, hing, curry leaves and cumin seeds for seasoning

Cilantro for garnishing (optional)

Method :

Wash and drain the toordaal. Add the cumin seeds and add some water and soak it for an hour.

Grind the daal, cumin seeds and redchillies with little water into thick paste.

In a pan, add tamarind extract to this paste and add some more water as this thickens pretty fast. Add turmeric powder and salt. Let it boil till the raw smell goes. Add more water if required. Season with mustard seeds, hing, curry leaves and jeera.

Tastes good with Rice and any curry. You can have it as soup also.

V8 Rasam

This is a quick and easy recipe. This recipe is quite popular with my friends too and this is handy when we stay outside for an extended period and where indian stores/restaurents are not nearby.

Here's the recipe...

Ingredients :

V8 tomato juice - 250 ml
Water - 2 cups
Salt to taste
Rasam powder - 2 spoons (adjust according to the spice level you like)
Mustard seeds, Cumin seeds, hing for seasoning
Cilantro for garnishing.


Method :

Mix V8 juice, water, salt and rasam powder and let it boil till the raw smell of the rasam powder goes.
Add little bit more water and turn off the stove as soon as it starts bubbling.
Season with mustard seeds, cumins seeds and hing and garnish with chopped cilantro.
It is lipsmacking delicious. :-) You can make it little thicker and have it as a spicy soup as well.

Quick and Easy Pepper Rasam

My mom gave me this recipe when i was little under the weather one day. Usually anything with pepper makes you feel better when you have cold and this is super easy to make also.


Ingredients :


Pepper - 1/2 spoon
Jeera/ Cumin seeds - 3/4th of a spoon
Tamarind - 1 small lemon size
Mustard seeds, Hing, Cumin seeds for seasoning
Toor daal -1/4 cup
Salt to taste.

Dry grind the Pepper and Jeera
Pressure cook toor daal and keep aside.
Soak tamarind in water for few minutes and take the extract or use 1/2 spoon tamarind concentrate and mix it with water.
Add the pepper jeera powder and salt to the tamarind extract and let it boil till the raw smell of the tamarind goes. Add toor daal and let it boil for another 5 minutes. Season with mustard seeds, jeera, hing and curry leaves. Garnish with cilantro.

There is another way of preparing Pepper rasam which is the original method. I will post it later.

Note : You can adjust the quantity of pepper and cumin seeds according to your taste. If you want it more spicy increase the quantity of pepper.

Onion Vethakuzhambu

This is spicy, tangy and tastes delicious. It is also very quick to make.

Ingredients :

Tamarind - lemon sized ball

Red chillies - 4

Channa daal - 2 spoons

Manathakali vathal (dried black night shade) - 2 spoons

onion - 1 chopped

Sambar powder - spoon

Mustard seeds, urad daal, hing

Salt to taste

Curry leaves - few

Rice flour - 1 spoon (heaped)

Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 spoon

Method :

In a pan, heat oil and pop mustard seeds. Add urad daal, hing, channa daal, redchillies, curry leaves and methi seeds.Fry till the daals turn golden brown. Add the manathakkali vathal and fry for couple of minutes. Add onion and saute till it is translucent.

Add tamarind extract, sambar powder and salt and let it boil till the raw smell goes.

Mix rice flour with water. It should be thick. Add this to the kuzhambu. Keep stirring while adding to avoid lumps. Let it cook till the kuzhambu becomes thick.

Tastes great with Rice and Pappad. Also goes well with Keerai masiyal.

Neemflower Rasam

This is a simple rasam with medicinal value. My first kiddo thought the neemflowers were some bugs and he thought it was cool to have that rasam!! Boys will be boys...He once told his grandparents that i prepared mosquito rasam :)

Tamarind Paste - 1/2 spoon (approx) (or tamarind extract from small lemon sized tamarind)
Water
Redchillies - 4
Salt to taste
Hing, Mustard seeds and jeera for seasoning
Dried neemflowers - 3-4 spoons
ghee - 1 spoon
Toor daal - 1/4 cup -(optional)

Mix Tamarind paste (or tamarind extract) with Water. Add Salt and let it boil till the raw smell of tamarind goes. If you want to add daal, pressure cook it beforehand and add it after the raw smell goes and boil it for couple of more minutes. In a small pan, take some ghee and heat it. Pop mustard seeds, hing and jeera. Add the redchillies and dried neemflowers and saute for a minute. It will turn dark and smell good. Add this to the rasam. Here's the picture of how the neemflowers look after sauteing in the ghee.

This goes well with Rice. If you like slight bitteness, you can have it as soup as well.

Neemflower has lot of medicinal value and i believe, it is good for the eyes. Since it's an edible flower, i am going to send this to "JFI - Flower Power" . Not a pretty flower, but a good flower :D

Lemon Rasam

My favorite. It can be had with rice or just as a soup. It's very quick and easy to make.

Ingredients :

Moong daal - 1 small cup
Green chillies - 3 or 4 - finely chopped
Mustard seeds
Jeera
Hing
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Lemon juice


Pressure cook the moong daal with turmeric powder.
In little oil, pop mustard seeds and jeera. Add green chillies, curry leaves and hing and fry for sometime. Add the cooked daal. Salt and let it boil for sometime. Add some more water and let it cook till it starts bubbling. After it cools down a bit add the lemon juice.

Note: If you are using juice from lemon and not the lemon squeeze or real lemon do not reheat as it will give a bitter taste. You can also add ginger if you want. Another way of doing it is by adding rasam powder and let it boil till the raw smell of the rasam powder goes away. This makes it spicier.

Picture will be uploaded later.

Daal (Jyoti daal)

My friend Jyoti gave me this recipe so it's called jyoti daal :)
I like this so much over the daal that is made just with moong daal.

Ingredients :

1 cup toordaal
1/4 cup moongdaal
1 large onion - finely chopped
1 or 2 tomatos - chopped
cilantro
green chillies - finely chopped
ginger - finely chopped

Wash and pressure cook the daals together.
In little oil, pop the mustard seeds and jeera and saute urad daal till golden brown.
Add greenchillies and ginger and fry for couple of minutes. Add onions and saute till it is
translucent. Add tomatos and cook for some more time and then finally add the daal and add salt to taste and let it cook for sometime. Garnish with chopped cilantro. Simple yet delicious.